Summary In this episode, Rachael Van Pelt discusses the implications of increased longevity and how society must adapt to a future where living to 100 becomes the norm. She emphasizes the need for a mindset shift from viewing aging as a decline to seeing it as an opportunity for growth and contribution. The conversation explores the principles of a longevity society, the importance of preventive healthcare, and the need for systemic changes in work and education to support longer, healthier lives. Rachael encourages listeners to embrace a longevity mindset and engage in community efforts to foster a culture that values human flourishing across all ages.
In this episode of Next Act Ninjas, Rachael Van Pelt examines what it will take to transition from an "aging society" to a "longevity society" as advances in biotech and healthcare extend lifespans. Drawing from Andrew Scott's The Longevity Imperative, she explores how longer lives can bring continuous growth, new opportunities, and systemic change.
Rachael highlights the need for a cultural shift, emphasizing flexible career paths, lifelong learning, preventive healthcare, and combating ageism. She also shares practical tips to future-proof your health and mindset for a vibrant life at every stage.
Tune in to discover how we can collectively embrace this new era of longevity and reimagine aging as an opportunity for thriving, not decline.
Chapters
00:00 The Future of Longevity: A New Perspective
02:10 Shifting from Aging Society to Longevity Society
04:33 Key Principles of a Longevity Society
09:30 Practical Changes in a Longevity Society
12:15 Overcoming Challenges: Ageism and Short-Term Thinking
13:26 How Individuals Can Shift Societal Views on Aging
Hey, hey, welcome back to Next Act Ninjas, the #1 podcast for mastering your health and wealth longevity. I'm your host, Rachael Van Pelt, a retired healthspan scientist turned realtor and coach. Last week, we talked about how realistic living to 100 is and whether it's even something that we want. Today, we're going to follow up on that topic by addressing what extended lifespan will truly mean to society and how we'll have to adapt if living to 100 becomes the norm rather than the exception.
Because many scientists believe that this is totally possible within the coming decade. The age of intelligence is exploding, so we're about to see incredibly fast advances in biotech that will revolutionize the science of longevity. And while living to 100 is not here just yet, it's coming fast enough that we need to start adapting immediately as individuals and as a society.
To prepare for this, we need to shift our thinking. In the book, The Longevity Imperative, Andrew Scott proposed a shift towards what he called an Evergreen Agenda. What he meant by "evergreen" is that people are universally and continually relevant throughout their life. We don't just have one season of flourishing and then wither and die off. The idea is that we are equally relevant at every stage and we need to embrace this as a culture given the advances that are coming. But this is going to require a big mindset shift for our youth-centric society.
If we are moving towards a society where the majority of us, not just a minority, are living to 100 and beyond, we will need to radically transform how we approach life stages and health and work and aging and retirement. So that's what I want to explore today. What that transformation might look like and some practical ways that it could change our lives for the better.
Let's start by talking about how we view aging. Traditionally, aging has been thought of as something that happens to us -
an inevitable decline as we hit certain milestones and eventually we step back from an active life. But Andrew Scott's Evergreen Agenda encourages us to reframe this mindset. Instead of thinking of aging as a burden or a problem to solve, we're challenged to see it as an opportunity for society.
Think about that for a minute. Would you rather live in an "aging society" or a "longevity society". There's a world of difference in those two terms, isn't there? An aging society brings to mind images of frailty, dementia, and dependency. If more people living to 100 scares you, it's probably because you have been sold on the aging society narrative. This is the story that more old people simply means bad news for the future of our country. Every day I think we're bombarded by the idea that an aging society equals less productivity and more expenses in the form of Medicare and Social Security. In other words, it means a weakening economy. We're constantly told that more people will bring a tsunami of disease, dementia, disability. Cue images of wrinkled elders drooling in nursing homes.
But a longevity society? That's a totally different picture. That's a population that has learned how to thrive throughout life with every age and stage offering new experiences, greater wisdom, increasing contribution to society. More old people in this context would actually strengthen the economy because we're adding experience, wisdom, and purpose to those extra years. Just imagine a society that's built to support people in staying engaged, continuing to learn, and remaining active for 100 years. In this vision, longevity isn't just a few more years that you tack on to the end of your life. It's a vibrant way to live throughout your life, irrespective of age.
So what are the key principles behind this longevity society? Andrew Scott laid out a few guiding ideas that I think are powerful. The first principle is one we've already touched on, "consistent relevance". It's the idea that a longer life should positively impact all stages of life, not just our later years. We start seeing life as a continuum where each part builds on the next. It's kind like a well-crafted story that keeps evolving. The added years that you get from living longer doesn't just grow your wisdom and character, but it also allows you more freedom to experiment when you're younger. It removes the pressure to choose the perfect career path because you understand you'll likely pursue multiple careers in a lifetime.
The second principle is a "positive, future-oriented mindset". I call this thinking long game. Aging isn't about winding down, it's about staying vibrant. It doesn't mean we're in denial about aging, we're simply redefining it to make room for growth, resilience, and even re-invention.
Think about it this way. What if turning 65 meant that the majority of us still had at least three vibrant decades of potential ahead, maybe more? We wouldn't just focus on retiring at 64 anymore, would we? That longer, healthier time horizon would make us think differently about work, health, relationships. You'd prioritize differently in your 40s and 50s, wouldn't you? You'd naturally shift to thinking more about your long game, focusing on creating a lifestyle you love and one that you can sustain for decades.
And that's just the individual level. What about the societal level? Andrew Scott's third principle is that we need to take a "collective approach". This isn't just an individual goal, it's a societal one. To build a longevity society will need to inspire systemic shifts across healthcare and education and the workplace. We'll need flexible career paths that support continued learning and skill development throughout life. We'll need healthcare that emphasizes preventive care. These are the kinds of broad systemic changes that are going to make living longer, more sustainable and fulfilling for everyone, not just a few billionaires.
Imagine a 52-year-old who decides to leave a 25-year career and step into a whole new field. In an aging society, this move might seem foolish because the person is only a few years from retirement. Why wouldn't they just suck it up for a few more years? But in a longevity society, that transition wouldn't feel risky, would it? It wouldn't feel like starting over. It'd feel natural, like an opportunity for growth. In fact, when living healthy to 100 is the norm, I think many people will opt for Encore careers.
This wasn't the case eight years ago when I left my secure tenure-track academic career. Most of my friends, family, and colleagues, they thought I was crazy to take the risk of pivoting from science to entrepreneurship. I'd just reached the peak of my career, there were a lot of sunk costs. Why would I ever leave all that behind to start over in something new that I knew almost nothing about? Now fortunately, as a healthspan scientist, I had developed a longevity mindset. I was already thinking long game. I was willing to take the short-term financial hits because I knew that I could make it up in the long run. But more importantly, I was ready for a new challenge, a next level, a new lifestyle.
Could I have found that staying in my scientific path? Sure. I'm not saying that a complete change is necessary, or even desirable, for everyone. What I'm saying is a longevity mindset gives us more confidence to take risks at ages that we might not have in the past.
And when society, not just individuals, makes this paradigm shift, it'll be even better because we're going to have structures like continuing education programs and adaptive workplaces to support people through these kinds of transitions, whatever age they're at. And better yet, your friends, your family, your colleagues, they're not going to look at you like you're crazy because they're likely going to be making similar pivots later in life.
Okay, so what then would a society like this actually require? For starters, it will require a massive shift in how we approach healthcare. Rather than just playing "whack-a-mole" with diseases as they pop up, we need to invest more in preventive care. We'll need more functional medicine doctors and health coaches who are trained in health longevity. We'll need to create comprehensive and personalized healthy lifestyle plans for people so they can stay mentally, emotionally, and physically robust for many more decades.
We'll also have to keep investing in the science of aging, especially as advances in AI accelerate discovery. Scientific breakthroughs in the biology of aging are going to greatly extend healthspan, not just lifespan. But as we move the bar on lifespan, new health challenges are probably going to arise. For example, we see in animal models often that when we extend lifespan, there's a shift in what animals die of. The longer we keep animals alive, the more cancers arise. So even as we do better at pushing the boundaries of longevity, we're going to need to keep investing in research that will improve healthspan.
To build a longevity society, we're also going to need to rethink how we approach work, education, and retirement. We'll need more flexible career paths where people can take "mini" retirements or sabbaticals so they can acquire new skills, maybe even switch fields. Instead of a life where we just get education once early in life, we work in the middle of our life, retire at the end of life, it would look more like a series of shorter, cycles where you learn for a bit, work for a bit, take a sabbatical, rinse and repeat, all the while exploring new passions, new purpose.
Japan's already doing this. They're a decade or so ahead of us finding opportunities in their aging demographic. They've been exploring a variety of innovative solutions. Some companies are already creating flexible career paths designed to keep older adults engaged in the workforce longer. This allows for more knowledge transfer, mentoring opportunities, and chances for older workers to stay active and purposeful while younger workers benefit from the experience. This is the kind of practical adaptation that we're talking about for a longevity society.
Now, I know it's unlikely that shifting from an aging mindset to a longevity mindset is going to be smooth sailing. One of the biggest hurdles is going to be overcoming ageism. Many people, policymakers included, still see aging as something to manage or to avoid. And these biases run deep. Changing them is going to take time.
There's also the issue of short-term thinking. For both individuals and governments, there's a tendency to prioritize immediate needs over long-term planning. But if we're going to support longer, healthier lives, we need long-term strategies, long-term investments, policies that actually address what society is going to look like 30, 40, 50 years from now. The challenge is going to be convincing people, especially policymakers, to embrace this shift and support the infrastructure to make it work. But thinking long game is non-negotiable if we truly want to build a longevity society.
So what can we do? Obviously a cultural shift like this calls for big societal changes, but there's a lot that we can do as individuals. I think the best place to start is by focusing on preventative health. Take steps to extend your healthspan. Remember those four pillars I always talk about on this podcast, regular exercise, high quality sleep, stress management, and nutrient dense foods. Whether your lifespan is 80 or 100, those are the four most important things that you can do to stay healthy and independent as long as possible. To stay mentally engaged, invest in lifelong learning. Consider going back to school or finding courses online to keep your mind sharp and skills up-to-date.
And we can also advocate for change on a local level. Engage in your community. Engage in programs that bring together younger and older generations. Volunteer, join longevity advocacy groups, or even start conversations in your own circles. All of these things I think can advance the Evergreen Agenda that was proposed by Andrew Scott.
Longevity mindset is not looking for the fountain of youth. It's an intentional forward-thinking approach to making the most of each stage of life. It's about seeing aging as an opportunity for continuous growth, health, and fulfillment, rather than just a phase of inevitable decline. A longevity mindset leads us to make choices that not only benefit us short-term, but also lay the foundation for a vibrant, resilient future. As more and more of us embrace a longevity mindset, collectively we're going to become a longevity society, hopefully one that values human flourishing across all ages.
If you're feeling inspired by this concept, I'd love to hear your thoughts. What does adding more life to your years look like? How would a longevity society support your future? Share your thoughts in the comments. I'd love for us to keep this conversation going. I think a longevity society would be a powerful one that we can all play a part in shaping. We can create a world where longer lives mean richer lives, where aging doesn't limit us but opens us up to new possibilities. Why not reimagine a future where age is a privilege, not a limitation?
That's all I have for today. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Next Act Ninjas. If you haven't already, please be sure to subscribe and share this podcast. And stay tuned for our next episode where we'll continue exploring what it means to live fully at every stage of life. Until next time, live well, love more, age less, my friends.